Unknown Territory
by MyShipWillNeverSink
Summary: August, 1996. Castiel is a new kid at Lawrence High School, and Dean Winchester has decided to befriend him. Cas is bullied and full of secrets, and Dean and Sam are utterly clueless about what goes on outside their little town.
1. The New Kid

**A/N: Hi! This is a Destiel high school fic, and I plan to take this pretty far. I have lots of ideas, and plenty of time to do it. This is relative to their actual ages, so it's not a modern-day fic, and all you need to know about the background before going in is that the Winchesters aren't hunters. Everything else about the Supernatural universe is the same in this story, except they aren't a family of hunters. The rest will be explained in good time. This is rated T, but includes bad language. I figure T is for Teen and if a teenager is offended by the f-word, then they're also probably offended by slash fiction and therefore shouldn't be reading this story. **

_August 20th, 1996_

Dean walked into the classroom, a grimace on his face and a bitter taste in his mouth. Freshman World Civ., a class he'd failed when he took it the first time. He was a senior now. And, goddamn it, he didn't want to be stuck with all the bratty freshmen for an entire semester. It didn't help that the teacher, Mr. Karp, hated him.

Mr. Karp was actually the reason Dean failed the class in the first place. History is one of Dean's best subjects, but Mr. Karp had it out for him for some reason, so he did badly out of spite. He didn't mean to fail, but after it was apparent Dean was trying to do badly in the class, Mr. Karp had done everything he could to make sure Dean had to take it again. And so there he was, first day of his senior year of high school, sitting in a freshman class. First period, no less.

He sat down in a seat in the back row, leaned back with his arms crossed, and closed his eyes, prepping for a nap. The first day, if his memory was correct, was a movie day; a boring National Geographic documentary about the beginning of human development or some shit. Dean figured he could get away with taking a nap during the movie.

His eyes were still closed when he heard someone sit in the seat in front of his. He opened one eye and saw some guy with black hair and a tan jacket on. Disregarding the guy as a freshman, Dean closed his eyes again and rested his head on the wall behind his chair.

A couple minutes later, the bell rang, and Mr. Karp shut the door with a bang, effectively jerking Dean out of his sleep. He gave the teacher a dirty look as he crossed the room to his desk. Mr. Karp brought a TV on a rolling cart with him into the room, indicating that Dean's memory was in good standing.

Mr. Karp made eye contact with him and smiled wryly. "Dean. Good to have you back. I expect you remember how this class goes. No sleeping."

Exhaling and fighting the urge to roll his eyes, Dean nodded and leaned forward, resting his elbow on the desk and his head in his hand. Mr. Karp grabbed the roll call sheet off the desk and began calling names.

"Meg?"

"Yeah."

"Chuck?"

"Here."

"Hmm, this is an interesting name. Castiel?" _Castiel_? Dean thought. _Poor kid. Bet the kindergarteners never let him live that one down back in the day._

The guy in front of him answered, "Here." Dean looked at him in shock. _Jesus, that's an awfully deep voice for a freshman._

"Ah, it says you're new to Lawrence High School. Welcome."

"Thank you, sir."

Mr. Karp finished the roll call and turned on the documentary they would be sleeping through for 45 minutes. "I expect everyone to actually watch the video. There will be a brief quiz over it tomorrow." With that, he walked out of the room, leaving a room full of freshmen to their own devices. What an idiot.

Dean was leaning back in his seat to go back to sleep when he heard someone say, loudly, "What kind of mother names her son Castiel?" Dean's eyes popped back open and he sighed. Was that really necessary?

Another douchebag piped up, "Yeah, you really got the short end of the stick, dude. Are your parents retarded?"

Castiel calmly spoke up, "I'd appreciate it if you didn't insult my family." Dean looked at the back of Castiel's head incredulously. He was taking it a lot better than most would.

"Oh, you'd appreciate it. That's cool. I'd appreciate it if you'd-"

Dean leaned forward and yelled, "Hey! Listen here, asshat, I'm not understanding who died and made you better than everyone else. Turn around and shut the fuck up. Before I make you." The kid gave him a dirty look before turning around and talking to his friends. Castiel turned towards Dean.

"Thank you. I'm certain I could've handled that on my own, but I'm grateful nonetheless." Dean looked at him curiously for a few seconds. He looked so… serious. And he talked so formally. And he definitely didn't look like a freshman.

"It's fine, man, no big deal. What grade are you in?"

"I'm a senior. I'm going to assume that you're not a freshman either."

Dean smiled. "Nope, I'm a senior, too. Why are you in a freshman history class? If you don't mind me asking."

Castiel looked down. "I actually just really like history. I took it at the other school I went to, but I feel like I didn't learn as much as I could have." He looked up to see Dean staring at him wordlessly. "I'm sorry, I suppose that sounds ridiculous."

Dean shook his head. "No, not ridiculous, just surprising. It's a much better reason than mine." Castiel looked at him curiously. He sighed, "I failed this class the first time. Not because I don't like history, though... it was mainly to make the teacher angry."

Castiel nodded. "I see."

"So, where are you from?"

He looked behind Dean at the map on the wall. "A lot of places, actually. Too many to count. But before I moved here, I lived in Seattle, Washington."

Nodding, Dean asked, "So you move around a lot, then?"

"Yes. But my parents have promised to keep me in one place for my last year of high school. They said I need to make friends, establish myself somewhere so that in the future, I might have a place to come back to."

_Poor guy,_ Dean thought. And he decided then to befriend him. There was something vulnerable about this guy, and he instinctively wanted to protect him. It probably had something to do with the way the other students made fun of him earlier. Dean thought it was curious, though, that Castiel's parents moved around so much.

Curiosity getting the best of him, Dean asked, "What is it that your parents do to make you move around so much? Are they in the military?"

"No. They're researchers. But I'm not even sure what they research. I just know that when they're done with their work, we move. I tend to not ask many questions."

This was beginning to sound weird to Dean. But before he could dwell on it for too long, the bell rang. He reached down beside his seat to grab his backpack before standing up to stretch.

"It was good to meet you, Castiel. I hope you like it here. I'm Dean, by the way."

Castiel smiled. "Thank you, Dean. Call me Cas."

They went their separate ways and throughout the rest of the day, Dean found himself wondering how he was doing. After he set his tray on his usual table at lunch, he looked around and saw Cas sitting by himself. Before he had a chance to go over and sit with him, he felt someone's hands cover his eyes.

"Guess who!" Dean smiled, grabbing the hands and spinning around to wrap his arms around his girlfriend, Lisa. Lisa laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him on the cheek. Dean wasn't very much into PDA, and Lisa knew that. But she still managed to be sickly sweet sometimes, and while Dean would never admit it, he enjoyed it. He'd been with Lisa for approximately four months, and he enjoyed being with her.

"How's your first day going?" Dean asked, sitting down and opening a bag of chips.

Lisa sat down next to him and opened her lunch bag, pulling out yogurt and fruit. Lisa was into organic foods and such, something Dean would never understand. He'd be satisfied if he could eat bacon at every meal. After she emptied her lunch bag, she replied, "It's been alright. I'm a little disappointed that I don't have any classes with you, though."

Dean grinned. "Yeah, but think about how distracted I would be if we were in the same classes. I'd fail everything."

Lisa scoffed and nudged her shoulder into his, and laughed, "Shut up. You would not."

Putting on a mocking serious face, Dean looked at her. "Oh, I definitely would."

Lisa laughed again and looked past Dean across the lunchroom. She abruptly stopped laughing and grabbed Dean's shoulder. "That doesn't look good."

Dean, puzzled, turned around and his heart dropped. At the other end of the lunchroom, Cas was being approached by two of the biggest assholes in Lawrence, Kansas. They were laughing, and Cas looked annoyed. _Why does this keep happening to him?_

* * *

Cas didn't have the patience for a lot of people. Especially close-minded idiots. He'd observed, wherever he went, that when certain people see something they don't think is normal, they feel like they need to fix it. And, everywhere he went, for some reason, Cas wasn't seen as normal. It wasn't normal that he didn't wear trendy clothing. It wasn't normal that he preferred reading over watching television. It wasn't normal that a lot of the time, he just wanted to be alone.

This usually resulted in Cas being picked on, something that didn't upset him so much as it was seen as a nuisance. It followed him wherever he went, and he observed that where there were nice people, there were also those who wanted to change him, wanted to make him normal. And this really pissed him off.

So, naturally, when the two guys in the lunchroom approached him, he already knew what was coming. He was sitting by himself. He was a new kid. He was a loser. This wasn't news to him, and he knew that the conversation that was about to commence was pointless. Nevertheless, he couldn't stop it.

"Hey, dweeb!" One of the guys laughed and elbowed his friend next to him.

"Why're you sittin' all by yourself, hmm?"

Cas sighed. "I suppose it's because I want to."

The other guy laughed loudly. "You're so much of a loser, you _want _to sit by yourself? That's sad, man."

Cas's face got red as he got more and more annoyed. "Where are you going with this? Would you like to sit down? All you had to do was ask."

The guy's face got red and he scowled. "No, dude, I don't want to sit with you. What do you think I am, gay?"

Cas smiled humorlessly. "Could've fooled me."

Both of their faces turned beet red with anger, and their fists clenched. "What did you just say to me, dweeb?"

"Are you gay _and _deaf? That's unfortunate, because -" Cas was cut off as the two guys reached across the table, grabbed him by his shirt, and punched him in the nose, effectively shutting him up. They threw him back, and he tripped and hit his head on the table behind him. Right before everything went black, a thought crossed his mind.

_Welcome to Lawrence._


	2. Chapter 2

Dean jumped out of his seat and ran over to Cas when he was knocked back into the table behind him. As soon as he reached the two idiots who'd knocked him out, he pushed them out of the way and leaned down to check on Cas.

"Ooh, Winchester, got a new buddy here?" They laughed as Dean scowled and looked over his shoulder.

"You really want to mess with me right now?" Dean looked behind them and smiled. "Here comes Mr. Tricker."

The two boys looked at each other and decided they'd be better off leaving. Giving Dean a final look of vehemance, they walked away. Dean rolled his eyes. It wouldn't matter if they walked away or not; they did this in the lunch room, and they'd get in trouble for it regardless.

Looking back down at Castiel, he sighed. The dude was out, cold. After feeling at the back of his head for major damage, Dean found a really large bumb. He might be concussed. He vowed to pay those two douchewads back, first chance he got.

Mr. Tricker, the vice principal, approached Dean and Cas with the school nurse behind him just as the bell rang and the cafeteria cleared out. Dean saw Lisa walking towards him with a look of concern on her face, but he waved at her to tell her to go on without him.

"Mr. Winchester. What exactly happened here?"

Dean stood up. "McLeod and Wheeler. They walked up to the table and attacked him, sir. Knocked him out."

Mr. Tricker looked down at Castiel and grimaced. "Those two again. What a surprise. Winchester, if you could assist Mrs. Jones here and help her get him into the nurse's office, that'd be great."

"No problem, sir." Dean looked at Mrs. Jones and concluded that there was no way she was going to pick him up. Silently thanking God that there was no one else in the lunch room, he knelt down and picked up Cas, bridal-style. He wasn't too heavy, and Dean picked him up easily. He followed Mrs. Jones to the clinic and set him down on one of the sketchy cots. Right before he walked away, Cas coughed and opened his eyes.

"Where am I?" Cas asked groggily while checking the condition of his nose. It wasn't broken, but it didn't look pleasant either.

"The clinic. You hit your head on the back of a table and passed out." Cas closed his eyes and nodded.

"Spectacular." He tried to sit up, and immediately layed back down. "I think I may have a concussion," he said, and Dean was pushed out of the way by Mrs. Jones, who had finished whatever she was doing in her office and was now shining a light into Castiel's eyes.

"Mr. Winchester, you're free to go back to class. I'll take it from here." Dean looked at Cas, who's eyes were closed again, and walked out of the clinic, burning with anger at the two assholes who did that to him.

The rest of the day passed without anymore excitement. There was talk in his classes of the new kid who got beat up at lunch, and Dean did his best to tell whoever mentioned it that the guy didn't deserve it. Most agreed with him.

At the end of the day, Dean walked over to his little brother Sam's locker to take him home. It had been Sam's first day of high school. He saw Sam standing next to his locker, backpack slung over one shoulder and reading a book. Dean rolled his eyes. The kid was such a nerd sometimes. "Hey, Sammy," Dean said as he reached him. Sam looked up from his book and closed it.

"Hey, Dean." They started walking towards the doors to the parking lot. Dean's car, the '67 Chevy Impala that his father had given him on his 16th birthday, sat in the third row of the lot. Dean's car was his most prized possession, his "baby." He didn't know what he'd do without it.

"How was your first day of high school?"

Sam shrugged. "Not too bad. It wasn't much different from middle school. There was a wicked fight today, though."

Dean gritted his teeth. "I know. The guy who got knocked out is a new kid." Sam looked over at him, eyebrows furrowed.

"Seriously? Why would somebody do that?"

Dean looked at his little brother. "I don't know, Sammy. But it's unacceptable. The poor guy was defenseless." They climbed into the car and Sam sighed.

"D'you think Dad is back yet?" At the mention of their father, Dean frowned. Their dad's work took him out of town often. Since their mother's disappearance a couple of years back, John Winchester wasn't home much. He became a traveling salesman, and left Dean and Sam alone at home sometimes for two weeks at a time. He always left them enough money for food before he left, and he called home every few days. This time, however, John had been gone for almost two weeks, and he hadn't called in nearly a week. Dean and Sam were beginning to worry.

"I don't know. I'm hoping he's at least called by now."

When they got home, Dean checked the voicemail, and found no new messages. "Damn it," he swore under his breath. The situation was beginning to feel all too familiar. It was starting to feel like what happened when his mother, Mary, disappeared when he was 15. It was around the time Sam started getting bad nightmares that lasted for about a month. Dean remembered thinking that was weird, all of that happening at once. Mary started to seclude herself to the rest of the family more and more and began going on more business trips that took her far from home. During her trips, she had always called home every night. But during her last known trip, she went a week without calling. And then two. John had called her work and Dean didn't know what they told him, but after that phone call, John left the house and didn't come back for a week. Sam had been 11 and didn't understand what was going on. Dean didn't know exactly what had happened, but he assumed the worst. When John returned, he sat the boys down and told them that their mother was missing, and had been missing for over a week. He said that the authorities were doing their best to find her.

That had been a little over two years ago. She was never found, and Dean had given up hope of seeing his mother ever again. Sam and John still hoped. But John coped with it much differently than the boys did. After Mary went missing and John was around less, Dean became more protective of his brother and they formed a bond that hadn't been there when their family was intact. It was the only positive outcome to the entire horrible situation. Sam coped by escaping through reading often. John, however, coped by leaving often and drinking.

The only source of affection the boys got from a family member was from their uncle Bobby. Bobby was an old army buddy of John's who had watched the boys grow up and who the boys looked up to. He lived outside of town and frequently checked in with the boys when their father was out of town for a long period of time.

When the phone rang 20 minutes after Dean and Sam got home from school, Dean ran to pick it up, thinking it was John. "Hello?" he said breathlessly, after having ran across the house to get to the corded telephone on the wall.

"Dean? What'd'ya do, run a marathon?" Bobby asked, and Dean sighed.

"No, I just ran to the phone because I thought it might have been Dad calling."

Bobby let out a long breath. "Still no word?"

"No. Nothing. It's been a week without a phone call, Bobby. Do you think something happened?"

Bobby paused for a second before answering. "I wish I could say I knew, kiddo. I'm doing my best to figure out where he is. He could just be really busy with work."

"So busy that he has literally no time to call home?"

Bobby sighed heavily. "I don't know, Dean. But I'm trying. You boys just hang in there. How was your first day of school?"

Dean talked to Bobby a little while longer, and then handed the phone to Sam and walked up the stairs to his bedroom. After he shut the door, he walked over to his bed and kicked it hard. He was worried. And, though he'd never admit it, scared. He'd already lost his mom. And, even though John was doing a piss-poor job at being a father of late, Dean didn't want to lose him, too. He especially didn't want Sam to lose both parents. The kid was already messed up about losing his mother.

Sitting down on the edge of his bed, Dean sighed and looked at the phone sitting on his desk. _Please, just call. Tell us you're okay._

He sat there until it was too dark in the room to see without turning on a light, then he walked downstairs to start dinner for Sam. He had to put on a brave face for his little brother.

But the truth was: he didn't even know if John was alive.

* * *

**A/N: I realize that it doesn't seem very clear as to where I'm taking this. I swear, I have a plan. :) Thanks for reading, reviews are hugely appreciated! **


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